The Pilgrimage to the "Fair Virgin" in Regensburg

c. 1520
Woodcut, 555 x 390 mm
Kunstsammlung der Veste Coburg, Coburg

The figure of the Madonna stands in front of a wooden church being adored by crowds of ecstatic pilgrims. The image is that of the supposedly wonder-working cultic statue of the "Fair Virgin" in Regensburg, which was visited by large crowds of pilgrims in the 1520s after the Pope granted indulgences for such pilgrimages. Ostendorfer's woodcut was on sale as a souvenir. This particular print belonged to Albrecht Dürer, who in a comment in his own hand, dated 1523, criticised the growth of the pilgrimage industry.